Wednesday, July 15, 2015

July 15, 2015 (Guardian News) Soldiers and
police have been locked in a standoff with a nationalist militia in western Ukraine
after a gun and grenade battle that left at least two dead. Tensions have been
rising between the government and the Right Sector militia that has helped it
fight pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country. A Right Sector
spokesman, Taras Kuzyak, told Ukrainian media on Sunday that seven infantry
fighting vehicles had blocked the entrance to Right Sector’s base near the town
of Skole in Lviv region, adding that law enforcement was similarly cutting off
access to other Right Sector bases in western Ukraine. The move came after a
gunfight broke out on Saturday, when about 20 Right Sector gunmen arrived at a
sports complex controlled by MP Mikhail Lano.

They had been trying to stop the
traffic of cigarettes and other contraband, a spokesman for the group said. Near
the city of Mukacheve, the site of a fierce gun battle involving Right Sector
fighters, private security guards and police on Saturday, Right Sector members
were camped in the forest and did not plan to put down their weapons, spokesman
Artem Skoropadsky said. It was previously reported that police had surrounded
some gunmen in a wooded area and were attempting to negotiate their surrender. Lano
said a Right Sector commander had met him to ask his help in arranging
sanatorium stays for men who had fought in eastern Ukraine, during which time
an unknown man was shot outside. According to local medical staff, nine people
were wounded, including three passersby, in addition to the fatalities.

About 200 people rallied in support of Right Sector outside the
presidential administration in Kiev, many of them in military uniforms. Kiev
has allowed nationalist groups including Right Sector to operate despite allegations
by groups such as Amnesty International that Right Sector has tortured civilian
prisoners. Despite an official ceasefire that started in February, the conflict
in eastern Ukraine continues to simmer. Two Ukrainian soldiers were killed and
five wounded in the past 24 hours, a spokesman for Kiev’s “anti-terrorist
operation” said on Sunday.